College City USA?

[PghUSA]

http://www.thecollegecity.com

Pittsburgh does fit that billing some, the college population is approaching 150,000 in the city and 200,000 metro:

University of Pittsburgh (with Law, Medical, Business, and Engineering Schools)

Carnegie Mellon University (with Engineering, Business and Arts Schools)

Duquesne University (with Law, Business Schools)

Robert Morris University (with Business School)

Point Park University (with Business School)

Geneva College

Carlow College

Chatham College

Pittsburgh Art Academy

Pennsylvania Culinary Academy

Duff Business School

Allegheny Community College

Penn State Satellite Campus

and in the Metroplex:

LaRoche College

Washington & Jefferson University

Seton Hill University

St. Vincent University

Slippery Rock University

California University (yes it is in Pennsylvania, its Univ. OF cali in the west, and this one is about 20 years OLDER then the oldest branch of the state system out west!)

Thats almost as good as Boston or Phillys rosters, almost lol.

[M. Brown]

I think Boston is College City USA

[PghUSA]

Me too, I'd be interested what New Englanders (who hold their educational tradition dear) thinks of us grabbing their domain name?

There is some justification for it in Pittsburgh, lots of times we get overlooked people forget CMU and Pitt Medical and Duquesne Law are here as well as Chatham, W&J, Point Park, RMU etc. But I didn't think we were #1 enough to claim that title.

[Evergrey]

That College City website is excellent and has loads of great pictures and information!

Pittsburgh should be proud to have one of the finest collections of universities and colleges in the country.

[PghUSA]

The site really is a gem, I'm not sure we are the ONLY collegecity (maybe Boston could argue with that) but here's hoping that we fake it enough to make ourselves #1, we are I would say in the top 5 for sure and in my mind the top 3 for college cities.

[TheGerbil]

We are definitely high on the list when it comes to number of college students in the city. I think we have something like the 2nd highest concentration of college students in the US. We also have some very good schools here, as has been mentioned.

So I think it's justifiable to call Pittsbrugh "College City," even if the nickname has been used by others.

I often think about how all these colleges affect the city. On the one hand, it's great to have them here. But on the other hand, they are nonprofits and therefore don't pay taxes. Since they take up so much land, and Pitt is the city's largest employer, that's kind of a burden. Not that I would want any of our colleges to relocate, but I do wish they paid some taxes.

Another thing I wonder about... We have so many college students here, but many of them are not citizens of Pittsburgh. How much different would the city's population and demographics look if we counted these students?

And why not count them? They don't live here all year, but they are around a lot. They're part of the fabric of the city.

[PghUSA]

Gerbil,

excellent points, those have been covered before on another forum as you might be aware, the things I remember the most from those discussions was in relation to Forbes naming us #40 3 times in a row . . .

the only other city to have "less singles" as a % of population is that retirement community of Gainsville Florida, home to U. of Florida, party central whose team every year has the "World's Largest Cocktail Party" why would Gainsville be the ONLY CITY to have demographically LESS Single life then Pittsburgh? Because college kids don't count, and the Forbes studies that rely on those #s to rank the "singles scene" are equally worthless!

[Evergrey]

Gerbil, you have an excellent point. I would never wish for any of Pittsburgh's fine universities to pack up and leave... as they are an asset much greater than any amount of tax revenue... however, the city of Pittsburgh is disproportionately dominated by universities, hospitals, churches and other tax-exempt properties. This is just another reason why I feel Pittsburgh's areal extent needs to be greater.

[PghUSA]

You know though out in the metroplex they don't include:

-St. Vincent's College (near Seton Hill)

-California University (along the Monongahela Valley and Y e s it is OLDER then Cal U. in Berkeley--which is the oldest school in that state)

-Indiana University (north of Seton Hill)

-Waynesburg College

-Grove City College

In the urban core they do not include:

-Allegheny Junior College (obvious reason however many 2 yrs are making the lists of largest universities now)

-Pittsburgh Aeronautics Institute

-Pittsburgh Art Institute

-Pennsylvania Culinary Academy

-Duff's Business School

-Pennsylvania Academy of Mortiuary Sciences (yes we are the tops in the state when it comes to that )

Grrreat site though and they hit all the big boys in the area.

Outside of Boston I do think we can call our selves that, though Philly has also a rich history of many colleges/universities.

Pittsburgh is definetly in the top 3 in the continent on that though (in my mind tied for first )

[city guy]

Yo guys...here are the numbers!

This will answer some of your questions. This study was done

by the Pennsylvania Economy League, funded by Pew Research

and National Center for Education Statistics (NCES).

The study is really detailed but I pulled out the rankings below.

The PA Economic League's website is:

www.peleast.org if you want the full report.

Basically: Although Philly has more college students, Pittsburgh has a much

higher concentration per 1,000 residents then Washington, New York and Philadelphia.

Year 2000

Regional Comparison:

Total Full-Time Equivalent (FTE) College Enrollment and Regional Population Rank

Total FTEs Ranking,

The number to the far right is the 1998 ranking

1. New York CMSA 703,800 1

2. Los Angeles CMSA 535,700 2

3. Chicago CMSA 321,600 3

4. San Francisco Bay Area CMSA 309,800 5

5. Boston NECMA 268,800 7

6. Washington-Baltimore CMSA 264,500 4

7. Philadelphia CMSA 213,400 6

8. Detroit CMSA 173,800 8

9. Dallas CMSA 137,700 9

10. San Diego MSA 128,400 17

11. Seattle CMSA 127,900 13

12. Houston CMSA 113,100 10

13. Phoenix MSA 108,000 14

14. Minneapolis-St. Paul MSA 104,800 16

15. Denver CMSA 104,000 19

16. Atlanta MSA 102,700 11

17. Miami CMSA 98,500 12

18. Pittsburgh MSA 91,600 20

19. Cleveland CMSA 83,800 15

20. Austin MSA 80,400 41

Regional Comparison:

Concentration of Student Population

(FTE Enrollment Per 1,000 Regional Residents)

for 20 Largest Knowledge Regions

FTEs/1000 Residents

1. Austin MSA 72.7

2. San Diego MSA 46.2

3. Boston NECMA 45.8

4. San Francisco Bay Area CMSA 45.5

5. Denver CMSA 44.0

6. Pittsburgh MSA 39.0

7. Seattle CMSA 37.4

8. Minneapolis-St. Paul MSA 37.0

9. Phoenix MSA 36.8

10. Chicago CMSA 36.5

11. Washington-Baltimore CMSA 36.3

12. Philadelphia CMSA 35.6

13. New York CMSA 35.1

14. Los Angeles CMSA 33.9

15. Detroit CMSA 31.8

16. Cleveland CMSA 28.8

17. Dallas CMSA 28.7

18. Atlanta MSA 27.4

19. Miami CMSA 26.9

20. Houston CMSA 25.7

Regional Comparison: No. of Institutions (in Parentheses),

Five Largest Institutions (Total FTEs), and Total Enrollment (FTEs) for Select Regions

Philadelphia CMSA (83)

1. Temple University.......21,200

2. University of PA .........18,900

3. University of DE .........17,600

4. West Chester U of P..... 9,400

5. Comm College of Phila. . 8,800

TOTAL FTEs ............... 213,400

Pittsburgh MSA (48)

1. Univ. of Pittsburgh ..... 21,300

2. CC of Allegheny Co..... 10,100

3. Duquesne University.....7,700

4. Carnegie Mellon Univ. ...7,200

5. Slippery Rock U of P .....6,300

TOTAL FTEs................. 91,600

[PghUSA]

Some nice stats! That should clear some things up.

Though perception is 9/10ths reality and Pgh got the domain name . . . lol.

I will say Philly and Boston could compete (Boston I feel is #1) . . . cities like Austin etc. I just don't consider big enough to compare apples to apples (I'd say the top 35 metros then rank).

Great job cityguy, thanks for the info, but it might be a year-to-year mix up but University of Pittsburgh is at 26,329 for '02 and 26,795 for '04? I am sure Temple and Penn et. al. increased slightly as well . . . here is some sourcing that might help:

http://answers.google.com/answers/threadview?id=30085

and searchable:

http://nces.ed.gov/ipeds/cool/index.asp

Thanks again for the data though, I love wading through a nice thick pile any time